In exclusive stunning admissions to The
BRAD BLOG some 11 months after the 2004 Presidential Election, a
"Diebold Insider" is now finally speaking out for the first time about
the alarming security flaws within Diebold, Inc's electronic voting systems,
software and machinery. The source is acknowledging that the company's "upper
management" -- as well as "top government officials" -- were
keenly aware of the "undocumented backdoor" in Diebold's main "GEM
Central Tabulator" software well prior to the 2004 election. A branch of
the Federal Government even posted a security warning on the Internet.

Pointing to a
little-noticed "Cyber Security Alert" issued by the United
States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security, the source inside Diebold -- who "for the time being"
is requesting anonymity due to a continuing sensitive relationship with the
company -- is charging that Diebold's technicians, including at least one of
its lead programmers, knew about the security flaw and that the company instructed
them to keep quiet about it.

"Diebold threatened violators with immediate dismissal,"
the insider, who we'll call DIEB-THROAT, explained recently toThe
BRAD BLOGvia email. "In 2005, after one newly hired member
of Diebold's technical staff pointed out the security flaw, he was criticized
and isolated."

In phone interviews, DIEB-THROAT confirmed that the matters were well known
within the company, but that a "culture of fear" had been developed
to assure that employees, including technicians, vendors and programmers kept
those issues to themselves.

The "Cyber Security Alert" from US-CERT was issued in late
August of 2004 and is still available online via theUS-CERT
website. The alert warns that "A vulnerability exists due to an undocumented
backdoor account, which could a [sic: allow] local or remote authenticated malicious
user [sic: to] modify votes."

The alert, assessed to be of "MEDIUM" risk on the US-CERT security
bulletin, goes on to add that there is "No workaround or patch available
at time of publishing."

"Diebold's upper management was aware of access to the voter file
defect before the 2004 election - but did nothing to correct it," the source
explained.

A "MEDIUM" risk vulnerability cyber alert is described on the US-CERT
site as: "one that will allow an intruder immediate access to a system
with less than privileged access. Such vulnerability will allow the intruder
the opportunity to continue the attempt to gain privileged access. An example
of medium-risk vulnerability is a server configuration error that allows an
intruder to capture the password file."

DIEB-THROAT claims that, though the Federal Government knew about this
documented flaw, originally discovered and reported by BlackBoxVoting.org
in August of 2004, they did nothing about it.

"I believe that top Government officials had an understanding
with top Diebold officials to look the other way," the source explained,
"because Diebold was their ace in the hole."

But even DIEB-THROAT -- who says "we were brainwashed" by the company
to believe such concerns about security were nonsense -- was surprised to learn
that an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was well aware of this
flaw, and concerned enough about it to issue a public alert prior to the election
last year.

"I was aware of the Diebold security flaw and had heard about the Homeland
Security Cyber Alert Threat Assessment website, so I went there and 'bingo,'
there it was in black and white," the source wrote. "It blew me away
because it showed that DHS, headed by a Cabinet level George Bush loyalist,
was very aware of the 'threat' of someone changing votes in the Diebold Central
Tabulator. The question is, why wasn't something done about it before the election."

"A very serious problem...one malicious person can change the outcome
of any Diebold election"

The voting company insider, who has also served as a spokesperson for the company
in various capacities over recent years, admits that the "real danger"
of this security vulnerability could have easily been exploited by a malicious
user or an insider through remote access.

"I have seen these systems connected to phone lines dozens of times with
users gaining remote access," said DIEB-THROAT. "What I think we have
here is a very serious problem. Remote access using phone lines eliminates any
need for a conspiracy of hundreds to alter the outcome of an election. Diebold
has held onto this theory [publicly] for years, but Diebold has lied and has
put national elections at risk. Remote access using this backdoor means that
one malicious person can change the outcome of any Diebold election."

The ability to connect to the system remotely by phone lines and the apparent
lack of interest by Diebold to correct the serious security issue in a timely
manner -- or at all -- would seem to be at odds with at least one of their Press
Releases touting their voting hardware and software.

In an October 31, 2003 Press Release as part of a publicity blitz to "sell"
the new voting machines to the voters in the state of Maryland, Diebold Election
Systems President Thomas W. Swidarski is quoted as follows in a section titled
"Security Is Key":

Diebold has fine-tuned its computerized system so that it meets stringent
security requirements. “We have independent verification that the Diebold
voting system provides an unprecedented level of election security. This is
crucial to maintaining the integrity of the entire voting process,” Swidarski
added.

Attempts by The BRAD BLOG to get comment
from Swidarski were passed to one of the Vice-Presidents at Diebold who has
not returned our voice mail message.

We did, however, hear back from Diebold Spokesperson David Bear of the PR firm
Public Strategies. He was referred to us by several different Diebold offices
as "the man to discuss voting machine issues with."

Bear claimed to have never heard of the Cyber Alert issued by US-CERT and when
told of it, refused to acknowledge it as anything more than "an unverified
allegation."

"One of the greatest threats our democracy has ever known"

Our source expressed emphatically that the threat to both previous and future
democratic elections in the United States are still at stake and feels that
the problem will not be corrected until Congressional action forces the company
to do so.

"In my opinion Diebold's election system is one of the greatest threats
our democracy has ever known, and the only way this will be exposed is with
a Congressional investigation with subpoenas of not just Diebold officials but
Diebold technicians."

If our experience in discussing the matter with Bear, the man Diebold referred
us to for all matters concerning voting machines, then DIEB-THROAT may be correct.
Even a Cyber Alert Bulletin issued by an official arm of the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security more than a year ago was not enough to phase Diebold. At
least not enough to even inform their public spokesperson about the matter,
apparently.

"I don't know anything about it," Bear claimed when we asked about
the Cyber Alert, and he refused to acknowledge there were anysecurity concerns
about Diebold's Voting Machines or it's GEMS Central Tabulator software.

Over and over, by rote, he repeated in response to our questions: "The
GEMS software has been used in hundreds of elections and there's never been
a security issue."

Bear says that "Diebold machines have never lost a single vote,"
but beyond that could not speak to the vulnerability issue since, he said, "I
don't know what vulnerability they're referencing."

DIEB-THROAT was taken aback, but not wholly surprised, when we shared the comments
from Bear denying knowledge of the "backdoor" security vulnerability
in the GEMS software and his contention that there was nothing more than "allegations."

The vulnerability, and the ability to "manipulate votes" occurs because
the GEMS software uses the public Microsoft Access database software to store
vote totals in a separate data file. And, as DIEB-THROAT explained, Access is
"full of holes. There are so many ways to get into it."

Because GEMS uses the Access database, "you can enter and manipulate the
file without even entering into GEMS," our source said in response ot Bear's
denials.

"GEMS sits on top of this database and it pretty much feeds information
down to the database from GEMS. It's almost like you're on the first floor of
your house and all of your operating equipment is in the basement so that anything
that happens on the first floor ends up downstairs. Well, downstairs has a wide
open door to it. So we're dumping all the votes downstairs and that's wide open
to the rest of the computer system."

"A culture of fear"

In trying to understand why the U.S. Homeland Security Department's Cyber Alert
didn't force Diebold to make fixes, patches or corrections quickly available
for their software prior to -- or even since -- the '04 election, DIEB-THROAT
repeated over and over that Diebold was simply "not concerned about security".

"They don't have security solutions. They don't want them...They leave
security policy issues up to the states. They've known about this for some time.
They don't really care," the source said, comparing the security flaw to
"leaving the front door at Fort Knox open." It's just "blatant
sloppiness and they don't care."

The versions of the GEMS Central Tabulation software listed on the US-CERT
site are 1.17.7 and 1.18 and DIEB-THROAT says the same versions of the same
software are still in use by States around the country and haven't had any fixes
or patches applied to correct the problem.

Diebold spokesman, Bear, was unable to confirm whether or not Diebold had updated
its GEMS software in any way since the US-CERT Cyber Alert was released telling
us only that "There's different versions of the software for different
needs" and that he didn't know if patches, fixes or corrections were ever
released by the company.

"There's always an evolution," Bear said. "Before any software
can be used it's federally qualified and then certified by the states...Where
different versions are running, I just don't know."

"They're still at that same version number," DIEB-THROAT said. "A
lot of our customers still have it and there's not been any patch....They really
don't care about this sort of thing. They really don't. People may find it hard
to believe...in other words [the company says] 'we'll give you a machine to
vote on and the rest is up to you."

"This is a very profit motivated company," the source continued,
"they don't care what happens after the sale. Once they have the contract
they've got the customer tied up pretty good."

Initially DIEB-THROAT claims to have been "brainwashed" by the pervasive
"company line" at Diebold, that all of the talk about security concerns
and the possibility that someone could hack the vote was the talk of "conspiracy
theorists". Apparently that was -- and is still is -- "the company
line." But after one of Diebold's head technicians who works out of their
McKinney, Texas facility confirmed the gaping security hole in the software
to our source, it was understood that these concerns were for real.

"Up until his confirmation, I had heard it through the grapevine, as rumors
and such, but he confirmed it for me. The lead technician who worked on the
software, who has a Phd in mathematics and so forth, was saying that 'this problem
exists!'"

So why hasn't that technician, or anyone else from within the company spoken
out until now?

"This is a culture of fear. Really. Only because we were good friends
did [the head technician] confide in me that these were problems that needed
to be fixed," DIEB-THROAT said.

"They all knew..."

In regards to possible remote access to the GEMS Central Tabulator by modem
via phone lines, a way that hackers could easily and simply change the vote
total information in the Access database, Diebold's official spokesman seemed
to be similarly in denial even today.

When we asked Bear whether or not the Central Tabulator is still accessible
via modem in their machines, he first denied that it's even possible, telling
us "the Central Tabulator isn't accessable via modem."

When we pressed about whether or not there is still modem capabilities in the
machines and software they sell, Bear admitted, "There is a modem capability,
but it's up to a jurisdiction whether they wish to use it or not...I don't know
of any jurisdiction that does that."

"Oh, boy. Such lies," DIEB-THROAT said in response. "There are
several jurisdications that use [the modem capabilities] in the machines...Probably
one of the most robust users of modems is Prince Georges County in Maryland.
They've used it in every election. I believe they started in 2000. And Baltimore
County used them in the November election in 2004. Fulton County and Dekalb
County in Georgia may have used them in 2004 as well."

While we were unable to hear back in response to messages left with Election
Officials at several of those offices prior to the publication of this article,
a review of "Lessons Learned" after the November 2004 Election conducted
by the Maryland state Board of Elections obtained by The
BRAD BLOG, confirms that modems were used to access the GEMS Central Tabulator
to send in information from precincts on Election Night.

We are still reviewing the complete document, but amongst the findings in the
report is that "the GEMS system froze several times during heavy modem
transmitting periods requiring the system to be rebooted, which generated delays
and prohibited BOE from receiving polling places' transmissions."

As well, the report concludes, "Modem lines testing in polling place still
problematic; need better coordination with school system."

It also says that "7% of voting units deployed failed on Election Day"
and that an additional 5% "were suspect based on the number of votes captured."
The BRAD BLOG hopes to have a follow-up article in the coming days which looks
in more detail at the full Maryland state Board of Elections report and the
alarming rate of failure for Diebold Touch-Screen voting machines.

When we asked our source if they had any evidence to show that the security flaw
described by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security was actually exploited in the
2004 election, DIEB-THROAT told us only: "I wouldn't say I have evidence
that it was exploited....only that it was known. To the feds, to state officials
and to Diebold. They all knew. In spite of the gap they moved forward as normal...As
if it didn't exist."